An Atlanta United preseason mailbag

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It’s a mailbag column, this is the intro.

"Ralph"

What will be the most distinctive part of Atlanta United relative to the other 29 (had to remember San Diego!) clubs in MLS?

In theory, it should be the pace.

The comp I keep drawing for this year’s team is last year’s LA Galaxy side. LA brought in wingers Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec last offseason and it immediately became readily apparent that Paintsil would be the fastest dude on the field 99.9% of the time and that Pec could do a madness off the dribble at any given moment.

The difference with this Atlanta United squad is at striker. Latte Lath has SEC speed. LA’s (now SKC’s) Dejan Joveljic is technically slower than Derrick Williams. I have proof.

Per MLS’s data provider, Sportec, Jovelic’s top speed checked in at 20.45 MPH. Williams topped out at 20.49 MPH.

Meanwhile, Paintsil posted the second-fastest top speed in MLS at 22.85 MPH. Pec came in at 21.38. And Saba Lobjanidze hit 20.89. We’ll see how much giddyup he still has, but I’ll guess that Miguel Almirón should be somewhere around Lobjanidze and Pec, while Latte Lath might be in Paintsil territory.

As best I can tell, Atlanta should have the only attacking trio in MLS able to take off like that. And it’s not just the starters. Edwin Mosquera hit 22.09 MPH, Xande Silva reached 21.75 and Jamal Thiaré came in at 21.74 MPH. Opposing defenses are going to be dealing with 90 minutes of lung busters.

Anyway, just for fun (and because I know you were interested) here’s the top speed rankings for Atlanta players last season.